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Credit & Copyright: Mauricio Salazar
Explanation:
Comets can be huge.
When far from the Sun, a comet's size usually refers to its
hard nucleus of ice and rock,
which typically spans a few kilometers -- smaller than even a
small moon.
When
nearing the Sun, however, this
nucleus can
eject dust and gas and leave a
thin tail that can spread to an
enormous length --
even greater than the distance between the
Earth and the
Sun.
Pictured,
C/2024 G3 (ATLAS) sports a
tail of sunlight-reflecting dust and glowing gas that
spans several times the apparent size of a full
moon, appearing
even larger on
long duration camera images
than to the unaided eye.
The
featured image shows impressive Comet ATLAS over trees and a grass field in
Sierras de Mahoma,
San Jose,
Uruguay
about a week ago.
After being
prominenta in the sunset skies of
Earth's southern hemisphere,
Comet G3 ATLAS is
now fading
as it moves away from the Sun,
making its impressive tails increasingly hard to see.
Gallery:
Comet
ATLAS (G3)
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January |
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NASA Web Site Statements, Warnings, and Disclaimers
NASA Official: Jay Norris. Specific rights apply.
A service of: LHEA at NASA / GSFC
& Michigan Tech. U.
Based on Astronomy Picture
Of the Day
Publications with keywords: comet
Publications with words: comet
See also:
- APOD: 2025 January 26 Á The Many Tails of Comet G3 ATLAS
- Comet G3 ATLAS: a Tail and a Telescope
- APOD: 2025 January 21 Á Comet ATLAS over Brasilia
- APOD: 2025 January 20 Á Comet ATLAS Rounds the Sun
- APOD: 2025 January 13 Á Comet ATLAS Before Sunrise
- APOD: 2024 December 16 Á A Kilometer High Cliff on Comet Churyumov Gerasimenko
- APOD: 2024 November 27 Á The Meteor and the Comet